The Ministry of Health (MoH) together with the World Health
Organisation (WHO) have cautioned Prophet Elvis Mbonye to stop his
social media propaganda against the soon to be launched Measles-Rubella
immunisation campaign.
Zoe Ministries’ Mbonye used his official Facebook account to bash the
campaign alleging that the vaccines to be used will cause Autism in
children.
In his first post on October 11, Mbonye said; “First to note!!! Am
neither pro or anti-vaccine. Am for informed consent. What that means is
providing all necessary information to the person going to be
vaccinated for them to make an autonomous and rational independent
decision. On 16th Oct, the Ministry of Health is going to vaccinate your
child in school and those not in school from measles, mar-burg&
rubella (MMR) Vaccine. On a global scale, Some vaccines have been known
to cause Autism, a very impaired brain condition.
I admonish the Ugandans to research about vaccines before consenting
to vaccination. And I ask this government to provide necessary
information through their media vaccination campaigns. Please out these
side effects of vaccines your child is going to be injected. Be
informed.”
He added “In April 2019 government launched a campaign to vaccinate
all girls starting from the age of 10 years onwards, I hear “against”
cervical cancer. Is it that a priority considering the health issues we
have in this country? Anyway, that is a topic of discussion for some
other day. More than 200 girls were hospitalised after receiving shots
of a vaccine sought to prevent cervical cancer, called Gardasil. But as
it is a trend in the political circles.”
However on Tuesday, both MoH and WHO refuted Mbonye’s allegations and branded them ‘false, unfounded and baseless.’
“The Ministry of Health has noted with concern about information
circulating on social media platforms by a one Mugisha Elvis Mbonye
alleging that the Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccine is dangerous to the
health of children but this is false. Contrary to the allegations on
social media, the Measles-Rubella vaccine does not cause Autism. Some
people have had concerns that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) might be
linked to vaccines children receive but several studies have shown that
there is NOT link between receiving vaccines and developing ASD,” reads
the document in part.
In another of Mbonye’s posts, he asks parents if they know the ingredients in the vaccines their children are receiving.
“So many children regressed after receiving this vaccine. Have you
looked at the ingredients and researched them? Do you know what’s being
injected into your children you take in to get vaccinated? It’s purely
evil to inject these ingredients into any living being, especially in a
young developing child,” the question posted on October 10, reads.
However, according to MoH, there is one ingredient called thimerosal,
a mercury-based preservative used to prevent contamination of
multi-dose vials of vaccines and research shows that thimerosal does not
cause ASD.
Over 18 million children below 15 are set to be immunised
against Measles and Rubella. Of these 8.2 million children aged below
nine months, will receive the Oral Polio Vaccine.
The campaign commences on Wednesday, October 16 to Sunday, October 20
in various primary and secondary schools for the first three days
before moving to communities for the last two days.
At the same time, the campaign will be the launch pad to introduce
the Measles-Rubella vaccines into the routine immunisation schedule of
the country.
Minister of Health Dr Ruth Aceng has advised the general public to
disregard Mbonye’s false information spreading on social media and bring
their children for vaccination.
Prophet Mbonye’s followers to hand him over to Police for sabotaging government programmes
23rd October 2019
Followers of Prophet Elvis Mbonye have asked Uganda Police’s Criminal
Investigations Department for more time to enable them produce their
leader for questioning over alleged decampaigning of government’s
national measles-rubella immunization campaign.
The Zoe Fellowship Ministries lead preacher was supposed to appear at
CID headquarters in Kibuli on Monday but he never showed up.
According to Daily Monitor newspaper, the CID Spokesperson Charles
Twine said that Mbonye’s followers visited the department and informed
them that he was unable to show up because he was abroad.
“They pleaded with us to give them time to produce him at CID. We
have given them one week to bring him for the interview,” Twine told the
local daily on Tuesday.
Last week, The Ministry of Health (MoH) together with the World
Health Organisation (WHO) cautioned Mbonye to stop his social media
propaganda against the just ended immunization campaign.
Mbonye had used his official Facebook account to bash the campaign
alleging that the vaccines to be used will cause Autism in children.
In his first post on October 11, Mbonye said; “First to note!!! Am
neither pro or anti-vaccine. Am for informed consent. What that means is
providing all necessary information to the person going to be
vaccinated for them to make an autonomous and rational independent
decision. On 16th Oct, the Ministry of Health is going to vaccinate
your child in school and those not in school from measles, mar-burg&
rubella (MMR) Vaccine. On a global scale, Some vaccines have been known
to cause Autism, a very impaired brain condition.I admonish the
Ugandans to research about vaccines before consenting to
vaccination. And I ask this government to provide necessary information
through their media vaccination campaigns. Please out these side effects
of vaccines your child is going to be injected. Be informed.”
He added “In April 2019 government launched a campaign to vaccinate
all girls starting from the age of 10 years onwards, I hear “against”
cervical cancer. Is it that a priority considering the health issues we
have in this country? Anyway, that is a topic of discussion for some
other day. More than 200 girls were hospitalised after receiving shots
of a vaccine sought to prevent cervical cancer, called Gardasil. But as
it is a trend in the political circles.”
Following Mbonye’s claim, both MoH and WHO came out to brand them as ‘false, unfounded and baseless.’
“The Ministry of Health has noted with concern about information
circulating on social media platforms by a one Mugisha Elvis Mbonye
alleging that the Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccine is dangerous to the
health of children but this is false. Contrary to the allegations on
social media, the Measles-Rubella vaccine does not cause Autism. Some
people have had concerns that Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) might be
linked to vaccines children receive but several studies have shown that
there is NOT link between receiving vaccines and developing ASD,” read
the document in part.